Cancers linked to the human papillomavirus have increased significantly over the last 15 years in the United States, with throat cancer now the most common HPV-related malignancy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. More than 43,000 people developed HPV-associated cancer in 2015, compared with about 30,000 in 1999, the CDC said.

At the same time, the CDC said, HPV vaccination rates are rising — a trend that could eventually curb the increase in cancer cases — But the rate is not rising fast enough, experts say. Nearly half of adolescents ages 13 to 17 in 2017 had received all the recommended doses for HPV vaccination, while two-thirds had received the first dose. Read the Washington Post article…

This is a challenge for those in Low-Income Countries LIC and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) as well. Gallagher, K. et al, in Vaccine, “Status of HPV vaccine introduction and barriers to country uptake” suggest that if one-dose HPV vaccination became viable, some of the significant barriers to scale-up and sustained use in LIC/LMIC may be overcome. (Perhaps the same for Upper-Income Countries?) The vaccine could prevent 90 percent of HPV-caused cancer cases every year.